MARSEILLE- based CMA CGM will launch the Citrus Express service that will export fruit from Turkey and Egypt to Russia starting in November with three 1,100-TEU range ships.

As of November 8, the carrier will remove its Turkey Shuttle service that is jointly operated by CMA CGM and Maersk Line with eight vessels of 6,500 TEU. This service linked Asia to the Red Sea, Egypt and Turkey.



The new Citrus Express loops will rotate between Port Said, Mersin, Istanbul, Novorossiysk and Damiette until mid-February, when Turkish reefer Turkish exports slow, at which point Mersin will be dropped and an Egyptian port added.



"This new service will enable CMA CGM to consolidate its position as a reefer operator in this fast growing market," said Stephane Courquin, vice president of CMA CGM Asia Mediterranean Lines.



CMA CGM recently reshuffled its Asia to Mediterranean rotations and pulled the plug on its Turkey Shuttle Service, which was handled by eight 6,500-TEUers with Maersk.



But CMA CGM said it will maintain its other four Asia Mediterranean services, which now have revised rotations, and it "remains committed to provide the most competitive transit times and the widest port coverage to customers on this trade".



The new port rotation for the MEX 3 service is: Xiamen, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Nansha, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Kelang, Jeddah, Port Said, Malta, Genoa, La Spezia, Algesiras, Tangier, Malta, Port Said, Port Kelang, Singapore.



This service will provide a "premium product to Italy and Red Sea markets by adding two new calls in Italy (Genoa and La Spezia) and Jeddah, Port Said and Tangier to its rotation", a statement said.



The new port rotation for the PHOEX service is Shanghai, Busan, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Said, Beirut, Trieste, Koper, Rijeka, Trieste, Port Said, Jeddah, Port Kelang and back to Singapore.



This service will provide a three-day faster transit time to the Adriatic, Lebanon and Syrian markets.



The revised port rotation for the MEX 1 service is: Qingdao, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou-Nansha, Shenzhen-Yantian, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Kelang, Malta, Valencia, Barcelona, Marseille-Fos Sur Mer, Malta, Port Said, Salalah, Khor Fakkan, Port Kelang, Singapore.



This service will dedicate capacity to French and Spanish markets in the West Mediterranean market.



The amended port rotation for the BEX service is: Dalian, Xingang, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Chiwan, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Izmit /Evyap, Istanbul/Ambarli, Constanta, Odessa, Iliychevsk, Istanbul/Ambarli, Port Said, Port Kelang and back to Singapore.



The company said this service will provide a "premium" product to Turkey and Black Sea markets by adding to its rotation a second call in Korea (Kwangyang).

THE Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) has conducted two navigational trials to test port access and turning basins for 15,500 TEU vessels, reports Dredging Today.

The first trial was on the 14,770-TEU Eleonora Maersk arriving from the Suez Canal's North Bound Convoy, with a draft of 14.9 metres, berthing alongside before re-joining the convoy to continue her voyage to the west.



The second trial took place on October 5 when the 11,000-TEU Edith Maersk approached the terminal from the north, completing a 180 degree manoeuvre in the turning basin.



Said terminal CEO Klaus Laursen: "Both trials would not have been possible without the excellent cooperation and leadership of both the Suez Canal Authority and Port Said."



Said Maersk's country manager Simon Brown: "Maersk Line is proud of this collaborative achievement which continues its tradition of innovation and business development in Egypt."



Said Suez Canan COO Jan Buijze: "With these two successful trials, SCCT is now open for vessels with a length of 397 metres and beam 56.4 metres [22 containers]."



Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal on the Mediterranean, is a transshipment centre for Far Eastern cargo destined for southern Europe and the Med/Black Sea Region. The Suez Canal Container Terminal, located at Port Said East, is a joint venture in which APM Terminals is the majority shareholder.



Today, SCCT has 18 cranes with 22 container outreach, 2,400 metres of quay, 15 metres of draft and zero deviation from the Suez Canal.

SWISS logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel has released its results for first nine months, experiencing a four per cent increase in gross profit to CHF4.56 billion (US$4.89 billion), drawn on a six per cent growth in revenue to CHF15,471 million, according to the company's statement.

But the operational profits (EBITDA) shrank 5.6 per cent in January-September period year on year to CHF687 million. Excluding the EU antitrust fine in the first quarter, net profits decreased 7.4 per cent to CHF423 million, including the one-off item to CHF358 million.



The company saw a rebound in third quarter due to "volume increases in sea freight and air freight and intensified cost management." Compared to the third quarter of 2011, its turnover was up 12.4 per cent and gross profit 6.9 per cent. As a result, its EBITDA improved 3.1 per cent in the third quarter year on year.



Kuehne + Nagel CEO Reinhard Lange said: "The improvement of results in the third quarter makes us confident of reaching the profitability targets we have set ourselves for the full business year 2012.



"Intensified cost management as well as a continuous improvement of the services for our customers will be the foundation for profitable growth."



From January to September, Kuehne + Nagel increased container volumes by seven per cent. But the market growth has experienced substantial slowdown in the third quarter in most trade lanes.



In Asia-Europe trade, the decline of volumes exceeded 10 per cent, said the company statement. However, Kuehne + Nagel was able to increase its overall volumes by six per cent in the third quarter.



Its EBIT-to-gross-profit margin saw a significant improvement in the third quarter to 32.5 per cent due to effective cost control measures. During the first nine-month period, EBIT conversion was at 30.5 per cent, against previous year's 33.5 per cent. And the operational result was six per cent lower than the same period last year.



But it saw a soft international air freight market in the third quarter. Kuehne + Nagel increased its air freight tonnage by three per cent in the third quarter and by two per cent in the first nine months of 2012, due to good intra-Asia trade and booming export markets in South and North America.



Though seeing an improved gross profit margin, its EBIT-to-gross-profit margin was at 25 per cent compared to the previous year's level at 30.2 per cent. The operational result was thus down 10 per cent.



For road and rail logistics business, the relative volume shrank due to the deterioration of EU debt crisis. But Kuehne + Nagel was still able to increase net turnover by 8.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year, while operational result decreased 9.7 per cent year on year. The EBITDA margin was at 1.2 per cent compared to 1.4 per cent in the same period of last year.



For contract logistics segment, its net turnover increased 3.8 per cent in the first nine months. The company said it was able to sustain its operational result at CHF115 million and the EBITDA margin at 3.6 per cent.

AVAILABLE third quarter financial figures indicate that Swiss forwarding giant Panalpina will show an operating profit (EBITDA) between CHF15 million and CHF20 million (US$16.2 million-$21.4 million), which includes its CHF12 million share of an EU price fixing fine.

Profits were also hit by an eight per cent year-on-year drop in air freight volume coupled with higher costs, a decline that reflected even more acutely in September, said the company statement.



Panalpina's air freight division accounts for almost 50 per cent of the company's net forwarding revenue and two thirds of its air freight volumes come from trade lanes involving Europe.



"After a weak July and an improvement in August, we expected our air freight volumes to grow sequentially in September. However, compared to August they came in much weaker than seasonally normal, especially on Europe-related trade lanes," said Panalpina CEO Monika Ribar.



The company also saw significant volume decreases on most European trade lanes, both in import and export.



Air freight volumes of major customers in the high-tech, telecom and chemical sectors declined substantially in the third quarter, said the company. These three industries alone account for roughly 40 per cent of Panalpina's air freight volumes.



"On the upside, Panalpina shipped significantly more air freight for its customers in healthcare, oil and gas as well as manufacturing in Q3. The trend towards smaller shipments was accentuated. While the number of handled air freight files during the third quarter remained practically unchanged year-on-year, tonnage dropped by eight per cent," said the company.



Said Ms Ribar: "During the course of the third quarter it became evident that the expected volume recovery in air freight in the second half of 2012 would not materialise."



While Panalpina began to adapt to a lower volume environment through outplacement of staff during the third quarter, the company was not able to benefit from resulting cost savings in time for the third quarter, they are expected to take effect in the last quarter.

MELBOURNE-based ANL, a unit of Marseille-based CMA CGM, has joined the ASA consortium to expand its south east Asia-Australia services by adding a new weekly loop to its network.

The service now calls on Jakarta, and increases calls to weekly on Brisbane when it had been only been fortnightly before, reports London's Containerisation International.



The ASA, with its weekly calls to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Jakarta and Singapore, will be served with four ships in the 2,400- 2,800-TEU range.



The report also said ANL will assume control of one of the two Regional Container Lines' (RCL)-operated ships in the service that now includes Hanjin, Hapag-Lloyd, "K" Line, OOCL, RCL, STX Pan Asia as well as ANL.



ANL will continue to operate in the AAX group with its vessel partners APL and NYK Line and slot charterers China Shipping Container Lines and OOCL, which deploys five ships in the 4,250-TEU range, which call at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Singapore, Port Klang, Fremantle and back to Brisbane.

THE International Salvage Union (ISU) is lobbying to a change to the 1989 International Salvage Convention to provide more money to its members for their "environmental protection" efforts.

But the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), representing 80 per cent of merchant tonnage, opposes this, saying today's system "provides for a generous financial reward to salvors".



They were discussing reform proposals that might affect IMO Salvage Convention, the Lloyd's Open Form (LOF) and/or the Special Compensation P and I Club Clause (SCOPIC) at the recent Beijing conference of the Comite Maritime International (CMI), an Antwerp-based admiralty law association.



The ISU believes that the current system does not allow for merit-based awards for services to avoid or minimise damage to the environment. It supports the LOF contract with its "no cure, no pay" contract, but did not allow for negotiation of fees. But it believes the SCOPIC does not allow the salvor to recover only a fixed bonus regardless of the degree of success.



The introduction of Special Compensation in the mid-'80s - following a spate of high profile vessel casualties - took note of the "no cure, no pay" rule which allowed the salvor to at least recover expenses when there was no threat of damage to the environment.



Should a standalone environmental award be included in addition to traditional property award, there is bound to be a delay and complication from assessment as seen with US natural resource damage cases, said the ICS in response.



Such a complicated and drawn out process would be in no one's interest, not least the salvors, who in any event have previously expressed great satisfaction with the current SCOPIC regime," said ICS insurance committee chairman Matheos Los.



Additionally, a proposed revision to the York Antwerp Rules (YAR) of general average, which allows the crew in an emergency to toss overboard goods, and that merchants whose cargo landed safely would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, of those lost, would jeopardise what is now a uniform global maritime law.

ABU DHABAI Terminals (ADT) has announced that Khalifa Port received the first shipment of polyethylene for export from major plastics producer Borouge, reports AMEinfor.com.

The port received more than 700 containers of polyethylene from the vessel Al Bazm II from Borouge's petrochemicals plant in Ruwais, 250 kilometres west of the capital, which has already exported 25,000 TEU this year.



Previously, Borouge had used Abu Dhabi's Mina Zayed to export its products to customers globally. Abu Dhabi Terminals has already announced that 30 per cent of Mina Zayed's container traffic has already been moved to the new port - two months ahead of schedule.



"Routing our polyethylene and polypropylene products through the new Khalifa Port enables us to better serve customers, and we look forward to Khalifa Port's contribution to the successful growth of Borouge in the international plastics industry," said Wim Roels, CEO of Borouge's marketing and sales company.



Borouge manufactures two million tonnes of polyolefins at its plant in Ruwais and is currently expanding the plant's capacity to 4.5 million tonnes by mid-2014.



Said ADT chief executive Martijn van de Linde: "This demonstrates our ability to offer world class container terminal services as well as integrated logistics, and that Khalifa Port is already offering largely increased value to the Abu Dhabi economy."



Borouge was established in 1998 as a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Austria-based Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions.

MEMPHIS trucker, IMC Companies, has purchased 1,500 container chassis from OOCL (USA) Inc and placed the chassis into one of six Consolidated Chassis Management (CCM) pools-the Mid-South Consolidated Chassis pool-for OOCL's dedicated use.

This comes as the company along with other members of the American Trucking Associations' Intermodal Motor Carrier Conference group are studying creation of a motor carrier cooperative that would purchase chassis from ocean carriers, according to IMC chairman Mark George.



The North American Chassis Pool Cooperative would contribute chassis to neutral pools such as CCM, which is owned by 18 container shipping lines and has 120,000 chassis under management in six regional cooperative pools. Last year, the US Federal Maritime Commission granted approval to CCM to accept chassis contributed by truckers and shippers, as well as ocean carriers, said media reports.



"Simply said, the cooperative's desire would be to replace ocean carrier or other owning entities ownership with NACPC ownership and to have a say in managing the chassis through participation in a CCM pool," said Mr George said in a statement.



"This is an historic event for our company and industry in developing an industry solution to transition ownership of chassis from ocean carriers to other entities. I believe this is the most efficient and forward thinking strategy for our industry - facilitating ocean carriers that choose to disengage their ownership, while ensuring that our mutual cargo owner customers continue to have access to a reliable chassis fleet," added Mr George.

HONG Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl), a air cargo handler at Hong Kong International Airport, has appointed Vivien Lau as managing director of its onward carriage service unit, Hong Kong Air Cargo Industry Services Limited (Hacis).

Ms Lau, who replaces Kenneth Bell, who becomes CEO of Tradeport, a Hong Kong warehouse and logistics provider, will lead the company's efforts selling airlines and freight forwarders services between Hactl's SuperTerminal 1 and the next transit point to and from its six IATA-designated cargo depots situated throughout southern China's major industrial region.



Ms Lau has worked for various companies wholly- or partly-owned by the Jardine Matheson Group since 2000 (Jardine Matheson is the largest shareholder in Hactl). She spent the first six years in EastPoint Property Management Limited, where she was responsible for business development, marketing, brand strategy and corporate communications.



She then moved to Jardine Airport Services Group, where she was responsible for business expansion strategy in China, and helped establish the first Sino-foreign joint venture in Kunming. In 2011, Ms Lau was appointed executive assistant to the managing director of Jardine Matheson. She is an MBA scholarship winner from Henley Business School in the UK, holds a bachelor's in Social Sciences, and is a qualified management accountant.



Said Hactl managing director and Hacis chairman Mark Whitehead: "Her experience and drive will be invaluable in helping us to realise our ambitious plans for Hacis; this business will play an increasingly important part in Hactl's future growth."

SHANGHAI's Yangtze River Express and Navitrans, a Taiwan-Turkish company, have found advantage in the night flight ban at Frankfurt-Main airport by flying into neighbouring Frankfurt-Hahn airport, which is untouched by the restriction that mostly affects cargo flights.

Yangtze River Express has been joined by Navitrans, the new Taiwan-Turkish joint venture, as well as MyCargo and Japan's Nippon Cargo Airlines, which have also signed deals to land at Frankfurt-Hahn.



"The confirmation of the night-flight ban at Frankfurt-Main means that many airlines will now have to develop alternative models for their cargo business," Frankfurt-Hahn managing director Jorg Schumacher told Atlanta-area Air Cargo World.



Rather than competing with Frankfurt-Main, Mr Schumacher sees their roles as complementary, pointing out that Aeroflot and Etihad Airways, have shifted cargo to Hain while continuing to handle passengers at Main.



Yangtze River Express started operating through Hahn with a B747-400F service to Beijing, which it plans to increase to three times a week.



Istanbul-based Navitrans initiated a weekly service linking New York, via Hahn with Chengdu, using B747-400F equipment operated by Taiwan's Evergreen International Airlines. Navitrans flights have been increased to twice a week.



This new intake will add another 10 flights a week to the airport's freighter schedule, reportedly providing the potential to increase cargo traffic by as much as 10,000 tonnes a month. Recent talk of Frankfurt-Hahn facing insolvency has largely dissipated as a result.



"Since our flight from New York arrives in Germany at night and leaves again at night, it was obvious we should run via Hahn airport," said Navitrans German general manager Luhua Dai.



Nippon said a night schedule will provide it with a more competitive edge over its rivals. MyCargo said it would use Frankfurt-Hahn to operate both scheduled and charter services.

A Syrian A320 Airbus, forced down by Turkish F-16s to Ankara's Esenboga airport, had no arms or illegal cargo aboard, says Russia's foreign minister, which Turkey has failed to deny after making initial claims to the contrary.

A Turkish diplomat told Moscow's Interfax news agency that officials were still investigating and would contact Russia when they finished the inquiry.



After the seizure Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the cargo seized contained "equipment and ammunition".



Syria's Foreign Ministry challenged the Turks to publicly display the "equipment and ammunition".



The aircraft flying from Moscow to Damascus with 35 passengers (capacity: 180), resumed its flight Damascus, but Russia and Syria protesting the Turkish actions. Russia demanded a further explanation, and Syria said it would file a formal complaint with international aviation authorities.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the aircraft was carrying electronic components for a radar station, and that such equipment fell within the bounds of international agreements.



"We have no secrets," said Mr Lavrov. "We have studied the situation: there were no weapons on this airplane. On the airplane there was cargo, which a legal Russian shipper sent via legal means to a legal customer."



Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been fighting a 19-month-old rebellion and hundreds of thousands of refugees have moved to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.



The Turks back the insurgents, who have operated from Turkey and have secured swaths of Syrian territory along the Turkish border, which has prompted Syrian shelling in response, which has killed a number of Turkish civilians.



Both countries have banned overflights of each other's territory.



The Turkish parliament gave consent to military attacks on Syrian territory for one year, reported RRT News, adding that Turkey has since moved tanks and anti-aircraft batteries to the border.



Damascus alleges that rebels are using Turkey as a base for launching attacks on Syrian military installations.

LOGWIN, a global provider of air-sea freight and logistics services, has relocated to a larger office at Soekarno Hatta Jakarta International Airport, to house business activities under one roof.

In June the company also established a new bonded warehouse close to the new office dedicated to air freight imports, it said in a release.



"The fully renovated office with 460-square-metres space, accommodating Logwin staff from air freight, sea freight, sales and management will incorporate different business areas under one roof, enabling Logwin to provide a more efficient service to manage and respond to all customer enquiries and requirements," said Logwin country director Eric Mathieu.



The new bonded warehouse covers 359 square metres with 83 square metres of office space and 276 square metres of bonded warehouse space, equipped with racks, alarm and 24-hour CCTV surveillance. Staff at the new office and warehouse facilities will manage documentation, handle shipments and arrange for in-country onwards shipment to customers.



"Customs procedures mean that often goods need to be kept in a bonded area for a few days until they are cleared and we have invested in meeting demand from our customers with our new bonded warehouse conveniently situated at Jakarta airport," said Mr Mathieu. "Indonesia's dramatic economic growth and increasing domestic consumer demand for imported luxury goods has resulted in an increase in air freight volumes into Jakarta. With this development comes an increase in demand for securing customs clearances and expedited warehousing solutions too."